JournalTOCs

Human Rights Brief
Number of Followers: 11

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 1522-6808
Published by WCL

[11 journals]

Movement Lawyering for Georgia Worker Cooperatives
- Authors: Julian M. Hill
  Abstract: Capitalism’s Contradictions in Atlanta. The Park Place and Auburn Avenue intersection in downtown Atlanta juxtaposes capitalism’s shiny veneer and putrid underbelly. Among Georgia State University’s multi-story buildings, Woodruff Park’s lush trees, and the vibrant Sweet Auburn neighborhood once home to Martin Luther King, Jr., diverse youth vying for class ascension and minority-owned businesses exemplifying Atlanta’s claim as an entrepreneurship hub populate the sidewalks. A deeper look, however, reveals cracks within the “Real Wakanda” facade. Wooden boards cover commercial space doors along Auburn Avenue, houseless folks support each other and request help from others around Woodruff Park, and students born into poverty face the reality of being less likely than anywhere in the country to escape it. Moreover, significant numbers of Atlantans suffer despite pockets of wealth among Black entertainers and entrepreneurs who generally live in the suburbs. When capitalist markets fail, communities worldwide have turned to cooperation, and Atlanta is no different.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:25:12 PDT
Lessons In Movement Lawyering from the Ferguson Uprising
- Authors: Maggie Ellinger-Locke
  Abstract: Michael Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. That day, I was on vacation in Michigan with my family, hanging on the beach and playing in the water. My father passed away from liver cancer exactly four months before, and I made the decision to close down his law practice in the St. Louis, Missouri area, and move to Washington, DC, where my longterm partner had taken a job. The trip to Michigan was supposed to be a stopover on my way to DC; my car was packed to the brim.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:25:05 PDT
Movement Lawyering: Rebuilding Community Power & Decentering Law
- Authors: Sami Schramm et al.
  Abstract: On Thursday, February 16, 2023, the Human Rights Brief held its annual symposium entitled Movement Lawyering: Rebuilding Community Power and Decentering Law. It was organized by Angela Altieri, Madison Sharp, Naima Muminiy, Sami Schramm, Destiny Staten, Angel Gardner, Leila Hamouie, Fabian Kopp, Marnie Leonard, and Thea Cabrera Montejo. Together, the team curated a day full of empowering keynotes, inspiring panels, and an insightful workshop. The team also created a resource to document the event.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:24:59 PDT
Religious Discrimination and Violation of Property Rights in Turkey
- Authors: Andre Taylor
  Abstract: In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) provided a ruling in an application against Turkey by the Foundation of the Taksiarhis Greek Orthodox Church. The Turkish government was held to have committed religious discrimination against its Greek Orthodox community by rejecting an application to register a historic church without a valid explanation. The Turkish High Court decided to register the disputed property in the name of the Public Treasury rather than grant ownership of the property outright to the Church. The Istanbul Administrative Court had repeatedly dismissed the Church’s appeals on the basis that the conditions listed in their property code were not satisfied.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:24:52 PDT
ECtHR Halts Forced Deportation of Uyghur Couple Seeking Asylum in Malta:
Latest in a Series of Breaches of European Convention on Human Rights
- Authors: Tesa Hargis
  Abstract: On January 16, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ordered Malta to halt the process of forcibly removing a Uyghur couple, A.B. and Y.M., seeking asylum. The couple, who are Chinese nationals of Uyghur ethnicity and Muslim faith, arrived in Malta in 2016; the rejection of their initial application in 2017 forced them to live in hiding for years. Prior to bringing their case to the ECtHR, the Uyghur couple had been detained at the Safi Barracks and were facing immediate deportation to China.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:24:45 PDT
One of Many: The Power of Publication in the Human Rights Regime
- Authors: Amanda Lorenzo
  Abstract: On September 19, 2011, the High Court of Tanzania found Ghati Mwita guilty of murder for a February 4, 2008 homicide, sentencing her to hang pursuant to Tanzania’s mandatory death sentence. The domestic Court of Appeal sitting at Mwanza dismissed Mwita’s appeal on March 11, 2013 and rejected her application for review on that decision on March 19, 2015. Mwita then brought the case to the African Court of Human Rights (the Court) alleging that the conviction and sentencing procedures violated her fundamental rights under the Banjul Charter (the Charter).
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:24:39 PDT
Second Chance Pell Experiment: How the United States is Starting to
Recognize Education as a Right
- Authors: Brittany Walker
  Abstract: For decades, education as a right has been an issue between U.S. citizens and U.S. courts. U.S. courts maintain that education is not a right, as it was not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution. Since the U.S. Constitution is silent about education, U.S. courts have applied the 14th Amendment to defer educational matters, such as compulsory school requirements, to each state. Currently, education in the United States is generally a right until middle school. After middle school, the American government allows parents and students to determine whether additional education is necessary in their situation. This view causes disparities for students desiring to further their education at colleges and universities, between those that can and cannot afford post-secondary education tuition. One segment of the American population that has been excluded from obtaining higher or post-secondary education are incarcerated individuals. Until recently, the American government prohibited incarcerated individuals from having access to post-secondary educational programs within prisons. Offering post-secondary educational programs in state and federal prisons could be as effective as substance abuse programs or vocational trainings currently offered, to provide them with the tools to be productive citizens once released. If the United States permits incarcerated individuals to receive post-secondary education, they will in essence, acknowledge education as more than a right for all of their citizens and live up to the international human rights standards.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:24:32 PDT
How the Overturning of Roe v. Wade Disproportionately Affects the
Immigrant Asian American Population in the United States
- Authors: Amy P. Lyons
  Abstract: On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the historic case Roe v. Wade, ending the right to abortion across the United States. The overturning of Roe v. Wade and the responsive state statutes that criminalize abortion are yet further barriers to health access for Asian Americans, especially those who experience domestic violence, and are a violation of the universal Right to Health.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:24:25 PDT
AECA and the United States War Crimes Connections in Yemen
- Authors: Rachel Hage
  Abstract: The conflict in Yemen wages on, and many states, including Saudi Arabia and the United States, have been complicit in human rights violations. The United States’ current and past administrations have continued to sell arms to Saudi Arabia despite multiple international organizations’ documenting the state’s human rights violations. This Article argues that, despite the lack of transparency regarding how much support the United States is lending to Saudi Arabia arms being used in Yemen, the United States may be held responsible for human rights violations in Yemen. The Arms Export Control Act (AECA) provides the U.S. President with the authority and responsibility for the exportation of defense articles and services. Under the AECA, specifically 22 U.S.C. § 2785, the United States fails to comply with arms sales requirements by not sufficiently performing end-use monitoring, failing to ensure arms sold to Saudi Arabia are used for their intended purpose, and breaking international law as cited under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:24:19 PDT
Striking Out: How the MLB’s Baseball Academies Interfere with
Children’s Human Rights in the Dominican Republic
- Authors: Crystal Nieves Murphy
  Abstract: Major League Baseball (MLB) has recently included a large number of foreign-born players in the league. Specifically, many of these players are from the Dominican Republic, with Dominican players making up more than ten percent of active players on MLB Team rosters across the league. This large number of Dominican baseball players in the MLB comes from a culture of scouting talent at a young age and the creation of baseball academies in Latin America as a whole. Currently, all thirty MLB teams have a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic where each team develops young teenagers talented at baseball.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:24:12 PDT
A Double Standard in Refugee Response: Contrasting the Treatment of Syrian
Refugees with Ukrainian Refugees
- Authors: Deanna Alsbeti
  Abstract: The unrelenting proliferation of international crises marks the twenty-first century with mass global displacement. In 2011, the world witnessed the Arab Spring, a series of anti-government protests that led to the Syrian Civil War and injected more than 13.5 million displaced Syrians into the global system. Today, twelve years later, the international system still struggles to accommodate and protect Syrians who cannot return to their homeland. In addition to the dire Syrian refugee crisis, and other refugee crises throughout the globe, the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine added approximately 7.5 million Ukrainian refugees to the world’s already stressed humanitarian system.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:24:05 PDT
The International Criminal Court’s Arbitrary Exercise of Its Duties
Under the Rome Statute to the Benefit of Western Global Supremacy
- Authors: Azadeh Shahshahani et al.
  Abstract: The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a constituent institution of the United Nations (UN) that investigates and prosecutes perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. Established in 1998 by the Rome Statute, the ICC may open an investigation through referrals by state parties to the Statute; referrals by the UN Security Council; or the prosecutor’s own initiative. Additionally, non-party states may extend qualified jurisdiction to the ICC to prosecute cases within their territories, setting the scope of investigations and prosecutions as well as the dates they shall encompass.The Rome Statute assigns various other duties to the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP). Article 53(1) generally mandates the OTP to conduct an investigation upon a reasonable basis to believe that a crime is, or has been, committed within the ICC’s jurisdiction. However, this jurisdiction may be proscribed by the Principle of Complementarity, where a state has undertaken its own domestic investigatory and prosecutorial endeavors rendering ICC action redundant. Moreover, Article 42(1) mandates that the Prosecutor serve independently of “instructions from any external source.”
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:23:59 PDT
Unwinding “Law And Order”: How Second Look Mechanisms Resist Mass
Incarceration and Increase Justice
- Authors: Destiny Fullwood et al.
  Abstract: For decades, the United States has used incarceration to achieve a particularized version of safety. Amidst the civil rights movement, presidential candidate Barry Goldwater wielded the phrase “law and order” against the masses of Black men, women, and children in their fight for equitable treatment. This came at a time when “[i]t was no longer socially permissible for polite White people to say they opposed equal rights for Black Americans. Instead, they began ‘talking about the urban uprisings’” and “attaching [those] to street crime, to ordinary lawlessness[.]” The result was a decades-long, persistent campaign to maintain order by arresting and incarcerating communities of color and people experiencing poverty.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:23:52 PDT
The Forgotten Sexual and Gender-Based Violence of the Vietnam-American
War: Is Justice too Late for Vietnamese Victims and Survivors'
- Authors: Madison P. Bingle
  Abstract: “The past, far from disappearing or lying down and being quiet, has an embarrassing and persistent way of returning and haunting us unless it has in fact been dealt with adequately.” —Desmond TutuThe Vietnam-American War ended nearly fifty years ago. However, the atrocities committed during the war have had a devasting impact on the lives of persons involved long after the conflicts’ end. A particularly marginalized group within survivors and victims of the Vietnam-American War is Vietnamese women who experienced sexual and gender-based violence. And given the specific tactics of warfare employed during this war, including the use of poisonous herbicide, the sexual and gender-based violence inflicted on women spans far beyond customary forms of sexual violence during conflict—it has also led to reproductive violence that has most affected Vietnamese women.
  PubDate: Tue, 06 Jun 2023 10:23:44 PDT